Table Of ContentThe Rohingya
The Rohingya
An Ethnography of ‘Subhuman’ Life
Nasir Uddin
1
1
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ISBN-13 (print edition): 978-0-19-948935-0
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To my father Osiur Rahman
and only son Niloy Rahman .
Both left me very untimely
Figures and Tables
Figures
1.1 Rohingya men and women in queue for biometric
registration 1 4
1.2 Doing fi eldwork among the Rohingyas in Pasan Para,
Ukhia, in 2017 15
2.1 Rangoon University Central Students’ Union in 1936,
where the leading representatives were Rohingya
Muslims (Rashid, Razzak) 4 2
2.2 Newly built Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar 48
3.1 Rohingyas are spreading over every corner of Ukhia
and Teknaf on a daily basis 64
4.1 Inside view of the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar 8 8
4.2 Local marketplace in Ukhia where plastic sheets
are sold on the roadside by the local Bengalis 95
5.1 Reporting place of Rohingyas just after their arrival
in Bangladesh but before their placement in camps 119
5.2 Typical Rohingya camp with roofs made of plastic sheets 126
x Figures and Tables
6.1 In many cases, multiple families live in a single-room
house in the Rohingya refugee camps 140
6.2 Common toilets for many households
in the Rohingya refugee camps 144
6.3 Water supply for Rohingya refugees in camps—one
tube well, many households 147
6.4 Inside a cramped tent in a refugee camp 150
6.5 People/kids standing in line to fi ll drinking water
supplied by WFP’s water tanks 153
6.6 Many Rohingyas are doing small-scale business in camps 157
6.7 Organizations and countries supporting the massive
Rohingya refugee situation in Ukhia and Tekaf
of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh 159
7.1 A Rohingya woman who was burnt alive but fortunately
escaped death 1 76
A4.1 Card given to the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh
after their registration in the biometric database 210
A5.1 Major ethnic groups in Myanmar 211
A6.1 Following Myanmar’s fl eeing Rohingyas 212
Tables
2 .1 List of MPs (period-wise) 4 3
A7.1 Population Census, 2010 213
A8.1 The main language (families) of the Bamar majority
and the Rohingya, Kachin, and Wa minorities 214
A9.1 Age and gender breakdown by camp/site 2 15
A10.1 Population fi gures by period of arrival 217
Figures and Tables xi
A11.1 Population fi gures by specifi c needs 219
A12.1 Resettlement of Myanmar refugees from Bangladesh,
2006–10 221
A13.1 Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and Myanmar
from fi nancial year 2005–6 to 2012–13 2 22
A14.1 Year-wise repatriation of Rohingya refugees 2 23
A15.1 Kings of Arakan who had two names (Buddhist
and Muslim) 224
Acknowledgements
This book has taken four years of my intensive engagement; it
embraces my research on, experiences of, and attachments with the
Rohingyas over two decades. During the three years of its making, it has
received a lot of support, cooperation, thoughts, information, critical
comments, and academic inputs from many people, including friends,
fellows, colleagues, students, co-researchers, and relatives. However,
fi rst and foremost, I would like to acknowledge those Rohingyas
who have been incredibly helpful, appreciably open, and extremely
instrumental in providing their time; sharing their pain, sorrow, and
everyday experience of vulnerability and discrimination in dealing with
their home state (Myanmar), host state (Bangladesh), and various state
and non-state actors. Without the cordial and congenial help of the
Rohingyas living in Ukhia and Teknaf, this book would not have seen
the light of day. The villagers, both Rohingyas and Bengalis, of Vasan
Para (pseudonym) in Teknaf and Pasan Para (pseudonym) in Ukhia
have been whole-heartedly supportive during the last two decades by
providing food, shelter, and all kinds of logistical aid during my stay in
these villages. I am deeply indebted, in particular, to those Rohingya
informants who fl ed persecution in Myanmar in 2017 and crossed
into Bangladesh for sharing their painful and horrifying experiences
of being eyewitnesses to the campaign launched in Rakhine State
on 25 August 2017. I have interviewed more than 500 traumatized
Rohingyas who were compelled to leave their homes, habitations, and
livelihoods in Rakhine State following the 2017 crackdown.
